Kissing
by GamblingDementor
Summary: 30 day OTP challenge: Day five, your OTP kissing. The Beifongs, Bolin and Zhu Li are back in Republic City and it's time for Varrick to face his former assistant.


Of all the moments in his life when Varrick felt awkward and uneasy, he would definitely put his reunion with Zhu Li very high up the list. At first, when Bolin and the Beifongs had barged into the room, shouting and warning about Kuvira attacking in two weeks, he had been worried sick about what they should do and had listened carefully, trying to think up a strategy, but at some point during the discussion, he had noticed Zhu Li and every thought had fled his mind except her.

At first he was submerged by a feeling of intense relief. She had made it. She was back here in Republic City, safe and sound, with no apparent wound or anything life-threatening. Then he realized that she was not supposed to be here. She was working for Kuvira. He was the fool that she had ditched and she believed in the Great Uniter's vision. What was she doing here?

"_Zhu Li?!_"

Her name escaped his lips before he could control himself. She turned her eyes to him and he was not ready for the look of plain hurt, yet also hope she gave him. Maybe he would never be ready. Heads turned to him and he realized he had interrupted the conversation. Zhu Li said nothing and the whole room was silent before Chief Beifong spoke up again, completely ignoring the tension between them to get back to the facts. Varrick never listened to the rest of the plans, instead stared blankly at his former assistant in silence. She was staring right back but now wore her mask expression that he had known so well a lifetime ago, when she'd still been his assistant, and he had no idea what she might be feeling. No more than he knew for sure what he was feeling himself.

After some time, the room emptied almost at once. Bolin gave him the thumbs up in encouragement as he followed his girl out − at least Varrick assumed that he and Opal were back together. The kid had told him he wanted to win her back, when they'd still be two pals on the road, and Varrick only wished him luck. He certainly knew how hard it was to feel inadequate towards a woman. He closed his eyes and sighed, pinching the brink of his nose, and when he opened his eyes, Zhu Li was standing right in front of him. Talk about a fast apparition.

"Good morning, Sir," she finally said after a full minute of staring into each other's eyes.

"Good morning, Zhu Li."

He looked down at his feet, not quite sure what to add, and tried to go for the safe road.

"I see you were not on Kuvira's side after all."

"She's an evil dictator and she's dangerous. My only shame is that my ruse didn't work out."

"Right… A ruse…"

"I tried to sabotage the spirit vine weapon, but failed."

"Ha, talk about a coincidence! _I_ tried to sabotage the spirit vine weapon, I blew the whole thing up but she found some new vines so it failed too!"

Her expressionless mask faded away just a second, replaced by worry, but fell back into place almost immediately. She coughed slightly before speaking.

"I see you weren't blown up in the explosion after all, Sir."

He gave her his biggest smile, trying to hide how nervous he was (and probably failing that too).

"Yep, Bolin saved me there. Owe this kid my life now."

She answered to his smile, a beautiful sight, even though it was gone as soon as it had come. He didn't know what to think of that. Maybe she liked Bolin a lot? Maybe she was happy he had lived? He would have found that hard to believe a few moments before, but now that he knew she was not on Kuvira's side anymore…

"Actually, we both owe our life to Bolin. He saved me from Kuvira."

"Then I daresay I owe him double for that."

There was a blank where neither of them said anything. Zhu Li opened her mouth but Varrick interrupted her.

"I missed you, Zhu Li."

"I did what I thought was best, Sir."

"I'm so glad we can put this all behind us now!"

She frowned.

"… Can't we?" he asked, suddenly not so sure.

"I think you'll remember quite clearly the way we left things off."

"But… But you just told me you were lying to Kuvira!"

She looked away, took a step back.

"I don't know what I was expecting. You'll never change."

She looked about to walk away and Varrick's heart began pumping faster than ever. He grabbed her hand and almost shouted.

"Please don't leave me again!"

Slowly, she turned her head back to him, her expression resolved and closed off.

"I will leave you a chance to explain yourself."

He breathed in and out sharply, not quite sure what to say. To be fair, he had been thinking about her a lot ever since she had left him, but never expected to see her again, much less so soon, and he was still not quite sure what he was feeling about the whole thing.

"These past few weeks have been the hardest of my life, Zhu Li."

"Mmh," she said, crossing her arms.

"I… I was lost. Ask Bolin, I was completely lost. I lost a part of myself when you left."

"Bolin told me about that."

"He did, huh? Good kid."

"He's ten times the man you are as far as kindness is concerned."

He laughed nervously, gulping to try and suppress his anxiety.

"Well, ha ha… What I mean to say is I'm sorry."

She opened her mouth, closed it, looked away with her nose up.

"You'd better be."

"Oh, come on, Zhu Li, don't be like that, I'm trying to apologize here!"

Her eyes flashed with anger when she turned back at him and _he_ took a step back now, holding his hands up.

"Sorry, sorry! _Sorry_."

She took a big breath as if to calm herself.

"Bolin told me you've started to change."

"I'm trying to. I don't think I could bear leaving you again, Zhu Li."

"You really hurt me, you know."

"… I know. I'm sorry."

"Just saying you're sorry won't be good enough…"

His heart sunk. She uncrossed her arms.

"… yet."

"I'll have to make this up to you, won't I?"

"Yes."

"How long?"

"Probably forever."

"That's a long time!"

"Serving you with no recognition was a long time too."

He knew, just knew that she was right. Bolin had said it himself: he had no idea why Zhu Li had stayed in his service for so long. And the more Varrick thought about it, the more he thought the same.

"I'm going to make you feel appreciated, Zhu Li."

Her eyes were mistrustful − not like he could blame her.

"I really missed you. A lot."

"I missed you too."

He thought he heard wrong for a moment, but when they looked into each other's eyes, he knew he had understood just fine. He saw in her eyes a light he had never seen before, a spark. Before he could stop himself, he took her hands in his. She gasped in surprise, though so low he only heard it because they were standing very close to one another, but squeezed his hands lightly.

"You know, when you left me, it made me see things in a way I'd never seen before."

"It did?"

Her voice was timid and shaking, miles away from her usual emotionless tone.

"You mean a lot more to me than I thought. I don't even know how I missed the signs before. You're not just my assistant. Well, former assistant."

He did not know how to say it exactly, but he saw at once that Zhu Li knew what he meant.

"What I want to say is that I _really _like you. I don't want you to leave me. I don't want to give you a reason to leave me."

Little by little, her smile got less shy and more sincere.

"I hope you never do give me a reason to leave."

"I want this to work, Zhu Li," he said and held her hands a bit tighter, intertwining their fingers. "More than anything."

Quickly, as if afraid to be seen, Zhu Li got on the tip of her toes and gave him a kiss on the lips. It was barely more than a peck and lasted a few seconds at most, but it was a _kiss_, given to him by _Zhu Li_ and that was already more than enough.

He was dumbstruck when she pulled away and just remained there, staring at her. Then she jabbed her finger in his chest a lot more violently then he expected from a woman who had just kissed him.

"I will _never_ put up with your crap again, Varrick."

"Well I'll never treat you bad again then!"

"Good."

"Can we kiss again?"

She gave a very subtle smirk but he caught it anyway.

"No."

"Ugh, was it just to tease me? You can't do that!"

"_I _get to decide when we kiss for now."

"_Fine_."

Though her voice was unwavering, her eyes were shining.

"So, about my job…"

"Oh. Of course! Erm… I can offer you any job you want at Varrick Global Industries! I'm sure you would be qualified to be pretty much anything, really."

"I was thinking I could be your assistant."

"That sounds perfect."

Maybe, just maybe things would turn all right after all.


End file.
